Why Are Religious People So Blind?

[dB-Paradox]

It doesn't matter whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu (actually, I have next to no experience with Hindus) they all seem to be so blinded that it's frustrating me!!! They're mostly intolerant of others not like them, especially toward atheists, and they are all so blinded that they cannot see the plain truth right in front of them!!! There's no such thing as a decent conversation with them! It's either their way or the fucking highway to hell! I just wish they could open their eyes!!! Am I over reacting? Am I being as intolerant as one of them? I'm just so FRUSTRATED!!!

[dB-Paradox]

This should maybe be in the rants section....my apologies.

[Darklady]

I used to have a live and let live attitude - after all I thought what does it matter what they believe. But I have had a serious change of heart over it. Of course its frustrating, you are challenging their inner core, their very being, but I don't let things go now, because it is evil, dangerous and down right bad for humanity. Fuck them.

[DesertBob]

It doesn't matter whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu (actually, I have next to no experience with Hindus) they all seem to be so blinded that it's frustrating me!!! They're mostly intolerant of others not like them, especially toward atheists, and they are all so blinded that they cannot see the plain truth right in front of them!!! There's no such thing as a decent conversation with them! It's either their way or the fucking highway to hell! I just wish they could open their eyes!!! Am I over reacting? Am I being as intolerant as one of them? I'm just so FRUSTRATED!!!

Yeah, you're over-reacting. Not over-stating, really, but there's no point in getting upset over old and unsurprising news. It is what it is.

[JadedAtheist]

Hindus in my experience tend to be quite open minded, then again Christian missionaries have been killed by "Hindu Fundamentalists". I use to find it ironic and amusing how in one of my old workplaces people of different religious factions use to unite (Catholic, Baptist, Muslim et cetera) in their hatred for atheists.

[★ Citsonga ★]

I go to a couple different freethinker/nonbeliever monthly meetings, and there's a Jew who frequents one of them. He is religious, but he's quite openminded toward nonbelievers. He's all for the Separation of Church & State, which is the primary focus of the group he attends, so we have some common ground. He doesn't try to push his views off on us and we don't push our views off on him. It's always a friendly exchange.

 

That being said, I agree that it's essentially impossible to have reasonable discussions with most religious people. I just usually try to avoid the topic; thankfully that's usually doable in my surroundings, although I am confident that there's talk going on behind my back.

[Vixentrox]

People seem to have this need, this delusion, to think there is more out there. That they are an insignificant collection of atoms and when they die, that's it...they just won't accept it. Spirits, dieties, reincarnation, heavens, and rebirth seem to be nothing more than cowering in fear at mortality.

[Xerces]

Being recycled atoms is way cooler anyway, that's some lion king shit right there.

[Guest I Love Dog]

I watched a prog on TV last night about Muslims.

 

I'm pretty tolerant of people and their beliefs and very rarely get angry about what they believe.

 

The prog showed Mecca and a big black box and people circled it, walking and obviously, to me, not being a Muslim it looked pretty strange! The prog showed Mosques in Jerusalem, etc. and the buildings were, in anyone's eyes, absolutely beautiful.

 

Muslims who were interviewed were really nice people, but of course, they were absolutely taken with their religion. That's fine, it's a cultural thing as well as a religion, but...

 

What I can't understand is WHY! Why do people go through that process of belief? What is their aim? What is the end result of their worship? Praying 5 times a day, facing Mecca?

 

Not picking on Muslims at all, it's just that it's the most recent display of worship that I've seen and I'd ask the same about any other religion.

 

What is THE point of all of those beautiful buildings, like mosques, churches and cathedrals, whatever. The cost in terms of money and human endeavor seems to be exorbitant when the World faces such terrible problems such as poverty and starvation and religious people seem to be intent on PERSONAL salvation, or their special place in heaven and believe that they'll achieve it.

 

It's all strange to me!

[Darklady]

I watched a prog on TV last night about Muslims.

 

I'm pretty tolerant of people and their beliefs and very rarely get angry about what they believe.

 

The prog showed Mecca and a big black box and people circled it, walking and obviously, to me, not being a Muslim it looked pretty strange! The prog showed Mosques in Jerusalem, etc. and the buildings were, in anyone's eyes, absolutely beautiful.

 

Muslims who were interviewed were really nice people, but of course, they were absolutely taken with their religion. That's fine, it's a cultural thing as well as a religion, but...

 

What I can't understand is WHY! Why do people go through that process of belief? What is their aim? What is the end result of their worship? Praying 5 times a day, facing Mecca?

 

Not picking on Muslims at all, it's just that it's the most recent display of worship that I've seen and I'd ask the same about any other religion.

 

What is THE point of all of those beautiful buildings, like mosques, churches and cathedrals, whatever. The cost in terms of money and human endeavor seems to be exorbitant when the World faces such terrible problems such as poverty and starvation and religious people seem to be intent on PERSONAL salvation, or their special place in heaven and believe that they'll achieve it.

 

It's all strange to me!

 

 

Recently when I was in England and Europe wandering around all the amazing, huge and very wealthy churches, cathedrals etc, I had that very thought. These were big in medieval times, when MOST people, including all the people that worked and gave their lives (in some cases generations of lives) lived in abject poverty, and yet, they built these monstrosities, to a nasty evil god who didn't give a fuck about their petty little lives. These building were used by a elite few and cost more than most could even understand. They keep the ordinary people poor, and for what? A empty monument to empty fairy tale. Its evil.

[Guest I Love Dog]

 

 

Recently when I was in England and Europe wandering around all the amazing, huge and very wealthy churches, cathedrals etc, I had that very thought. These were big in medieval times, when MOST people, including all the people that worked and gave their lives (in some cases generations of lives) lived in abject poverty, and yet, they built these monstrosities, to a nasty evil god who didn't give a fuck about their petty little lives. These building were used by a elite few and cost more than most could even understand. They keep the ordinary people poor, and for what? A empty monument to empty fairy tale. Its evil.

 

What is even stranger is that the poverty stricken give their hard-earned money towards the upkeep of these buildings and the priests, vicars, pastors etc. to enable them to prolong the deception!

 

Humans, eh? Nothing weirder!

[OpheliaGinger]

What is THE point of all of those beautiful buildings, like mosques, churches and cathedrals, whatever. The cost in terms of money and human endeavor seems to be exorbitant when the World faces such terrible problems such as poverty and starvation and religious people seem to be intent on PERSONAL salvation, or their special place in heaven and believe that they'll achieve it.

 

It's a way of saying, "Look, I have the bigger dick."

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I think there is a lot of power in the idea that "we've always done it that way". When a culture instills a particular viewpoint from birth, and has a political system that enforces this viewpoint, AND the thoughts of the individual are not generally valued as equal with authority, then you get what you saw in Mecca. And if you decide to be different anyway, there are beatings and death.

 

On a personal level, I still compare Christianity to an abusive spouse situation, where the woman comes to believe that she is stupid or worthy of abuse, that her abuser is really a good husband, and defends her abuser viciously should anyone try to rescue her. "His ways are not our ways", "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", "Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him"

 

Given that kind of mindset that anticipates harm with any stray thought, there is a deep psychological conditioning that makes the person feel safe by not questioning or by deflecting any criticisms of their husband/god. This is what makes them deaf and blind to evidence that their god is an abusive creep. Most of them didn't sign up for that kind of relationship, instead being drawn in by talk of the ultimate love. But they (like us) were slowly conditioned to have this same mindset. I remember feeling trepidation at my deconversion, but gave Jesus plenty of time to sort it out for me. Of course, believers would then put me into the mental slot of 2 Thes 2:9-12 and say that because I didn't love the "truth", God sent me a delusion so I would be condemned. Those kinds of scriptures are there to mentally protect the faith from the idea that there may be any problems with the "relationship".

 

Humans have a complex bunch of emotions and thoughts, and if we feel that our survival is threatened, we tend to go with what protects and preserves us.

[Thinks4Herself]

Hey, first post here!

 

Religious people are definitely frustrating! It doesn't seem to occur to the Christians I know that if they were born in another part of the world, they'd be most probably stubbornly defending the religion native to that region, which they currently find to be incorrect and untrue! Those religions are false because they're too improbable or too strange.

[ilovemybrain]

 

On a personal level, I still compare Christianity to an abusive spouse situation, where the woman comes to believe that she is stupid or worthy of abuse, that her abuser is really a good husband, and defends her abuser viciously should anyone try to rescue her. "His ways are not our ways", "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", "Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him"

 

Given that kind of mindset that anticipates harm with any stray thought, there is a deep psychological conditioning that makes the person feel safe by not questioning or by deflecting any criticisms of their husband/god. This is what makes them deaf and blind to evidence that their god is an abusive creep. Most of them didn't sign up for that kind of relationship, instead being drawn in by talk of the ultimate love. But they (like us) were slowly conditioned to have this same mindset. I remember feeling trepidation at my deconversion, but gave Jesus plenty of time to sort it out for me. Of course, believers would then put me into the mental slot of 2 Thes 2:9-12 and say that because I didn't love the "truth", God sent me a delusion so I would be condemned. Those kinds of scriptures are there to mentally protect the faith from the idea that there may be any problems with the "relationship".

 

 

That was SO well-put! I copied and pasted that into my notebook for future reference. I'm not sure I've ever quite thought of it that way before, but it is very much the same as an abusive relationship! Those verses (about being deceived if you're questioning, for example) really hedge people in by fear and it's a wonder any of us ever had the balls to start questioning the whole thing, and get out of the trap.

[Phanta]

 

 

Recently when I was in England and Europe wandering around all the amazing, huge and very wealthy churches, cathedrals etc, I had that very thought. These were big in medieval times, when MOST people, including all the people that worked and gave their lives (in some cases generations of lives) lived in abject poverty, and yet, they built these monstrosities, to a nasty evil god who didn't give a fuck about their petty little lives. These building were used by a elite few and cost more than most could even understand. They keep the ordinary people poor, and for what? A empty monument to empty fairy tale. Its evil.

 

What is even stranger is that the poverty stricken give their hard-earned money towards the upkeep of these buildings and the priests, vicars, pastors etc. to enable them to prolong the deception!

 

Humans, eh? Nothing weirder!

 

This reminds me of my mother, poor as dirt, giving $2 to the offering every week. She based it on a parable about a poor woman giving...a parable in the Bible, I'm assuming.

 

In some ways, I can't fault her. Her faithfulness to that community has meant emotional and financial support in very, very bad times over the years. Without them...of course, I can't know what would have happened, but she is already a woman with few options.

 

Phanta

[Ouroboros]

Unfortunately, I feel this blindness is expressed in many other areas as well, like political ideology and even in different fields of science. It's everywhere. It's a human condition to put blinders on when they buy into some idea. That's why it's so important to try to stay true and honest to yourself first.

[Vigile]

Hindus in my experience tend to be quite open minded, then again Christian missionaries have been killed by "Hindu Fundamentalists". I use to find it ironic and amusing how in one of my old workplaces people of different religious factions use to unite (Catholic, Baptist, Muslim et cetera) in their hatred for atheists.

 

Xian missionaries in Sri Lanka, along with help from the British military, completely fucked over and subjugated Hindus to unspeakable misery. If some of them fought back I'm not so sure it was due to their fundamentalism.

[★ Citsonga ★]

This reminds me of my mother, poor as dirt, giving $2 to the offering every week. She based it on a parable about a poor woman giving...a parable in the Bible, I'm assuming.

 

It wasn't a parable, it was something that was supposed to have actually happened. Here's the text:

 

Mark 12

[41] And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

[42] And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

[43] And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

[44] For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

 

I suspect that your mother, though not having much, probably did not give "all that she had." Regardless, though, this passage has been used many a time by the church to rape people of much needed personal funds.

[Freedom from Guilt]

THank you Fuego for that analogy. It makes perfect sense. It's so hard for the people around me to hear me say that their god is a dick but he CLEARLY is (scirptually speaking). It's nice to understand why they can't see (and why I couldn't see) that side of god.

 

freedom

[Vixentrox]

This reminds me of my mother, poor as dirt, giving $2 to the offering every week. She based it on a parable about a poor woman giving...a parable in the Bible, I'm assuming.

 

It wasn't a parable, it was something that was supposed to have actually happened. Here's the text:

 

Mark 12

[41] And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

[42] And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

[43] And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

[44] For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

 

I suspect that your mother, though not having much, probably did not give "all that she had." Regardless, though, this passage has been used many a time by the church to rape people of much needed personal funds.

I never met am organized religion that didn't try to abscond with the faithful's funds.